Vietnam attracts $11 billion of foreign investment in first four months

As much as $10.95 billion in foreign investment flowed into Vietnam in the first four months of this year, including from mergers and acquisitions (M&A) deals, the Foreign Investment Agency (FIA) said. The amount represents a rise of 40.5 percent over the same period last year.

According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment, in the year to April 20, there had been 734 new projects receiving investment certificates with total registered capital of $4.88 billion, down 4 percent over the same period last year. However, 345 foreign-invested projects got the nod to inject an additional $4.36 billion, up 241.8 percent over the same period last year.

In addition, there were 1,687 M&A deals involving foreign investors with total capital contributions of $1.35 billion, up 106.8 percent over the same period of 2016.

According to the FIA of the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the processing and manufacturing sector took the lead in attracting foreign funds in the first four months, with a total of $7.36 billion, accounting for 69.53 percent of the nation’s total.

The mining sector came second with total investment capital of $1.28 billion, accounting for 12 percent, and the third place was the wholesale and retail sector with total registered capital of $546.68 million, making up 5.16 percent.

There were 83 countries and territories investing in Vietnam this year to date, led by South Korea with a total of $4.05 billion, 38.25 percent of the country’s total. Japan ranked second with total registered capital of $1.85 billion and Singapore took the third position with $1.1 billion.

Foreign-invested enterprises in the first four months of this year also posted robust growth, especially in trade.

Specifically, in January-April 2017, exports of foreign-invested enterprises (including crude oil exports) reached $44.05 billion, up 16.1 percent over the same period last year and accounting for 71.82 percent of the country’s total.

Imports of the foreign investment sector reached $38.29 billion, up 25.3 percent year-on-year and representing 59.77 percent of Vietnam’s total. For the first four months of this year, the foreign investment sector obtained a trade surplus of $5.75 billion including crude oil and $4.82 billion excluding crude oil.

This year foreign direct investment projects have disbursed $4.8 billion, up 3.2 percent over the same period last year.